Take it All Away
by Secret Starr
Summary: He wasn’t coming back. Rukia knew this. Byakuya knew this. Everybody in the entire soul society knew this. Yet every night, at midnight, she would wait for him. And Byakuya would give her flowers until then. BYAKUYA/RUKIA! Past Ichigo/Rukia


Looks like I'm in a "opposites attract" mood because I've been writing them all over the place. This is my second Byakuya/Rukia fic, so if you hate it, let me know! Here we go!

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TAKE IT ALL AWAY

The moon looked as pale as Rukia's face. Her eyes lost in the star-less sky, looking as if she was seeing something nobody else could understand. Her hair seemed dead, the shine from it gone, as if it had worn tiered. Her once violet eyes had faded to a dull blue, and her skin was still white, but in a sickly way.

Unknowing to her, Byakuya stood behind her, watching her. She did this every night for the past year. Seeking for someone who would never be alive again.

During the day, she was what everyone would call her normal self. Taking orders, training, and smiling at the occasional joke. Only Byakuya knew that every night she would stare outside of her bedroom window, looking for him.

Byakuya had wished death on many people, and there was once there was a time when he too wanted to destroy him.

Ichigo.

The orange spiky haired kid that was always at Rukia's side. Laughing, joking, getting into bickering fights. It was always him who Rukia would smile to, laugh to, and talk to.

But not anymore.

He wasn't coming back. Rukia knew this. Byakuya knew this. Everybody in the entire soul society knew this. Yet every night, at midnight, she would wait for him.

And wait for him she did.

It wouldn't be until three in the morning when she would go back into her bed and sleep. And in the morning? She would be her usual self...at least the "self" people had come to expect. The never laughing Kuchiki girl. The girl who had grown up too soon. The one who had her best friend die while fighting at his side. Could she had done something? It was a question to herself. Nobody blamed her. Nobody expected anything of her. She just seemed to be in the wrong place at the wrong time.

The next night, Byakuya put a flower, a white rose, on the window seal. Again, he waited until midnight, which a few minuets after Rukia woke up. She crawled again to the window seal. Her eyes didn't seem to see it, nor anything else. They seemed blank, even from Byakuya's point of view, he knew that she wouldn't see it.

He would just have to keep trying.

Each night, Byakuya put another white rose on the window seal, and each night she wouldn't see them. When she woke up, the flowers would be gone, and Byakuya would be too. Already doing paper work, dealing with annoying other captains and the occasional training, but his mind always stayed on Rukia, on the flowers, on how much he was starting to care about her. How he was learning to feel again for someone besides himself.

It was the twenty-seventh night, the flowers started to make a pyramid shape, yet at the same time spread among the window seal. As Byakuya made his way to place the last white flower on the seal, he stopped.

Tonight would have to be different.

He took a red rose, a small and tiny thing compared to the luscious and plump white roses, and placed it in the middle, red shining against the white in a significant manner.

Again, he took his place, his head rounding the corner of her door, peeking into the room. Two minuets after midnight, she went to the window. Her eyes stared out into the sky, the darkness of it all taking her in.

Her hand brushed the crimson rose and it fell to the floor, making a soft, but audible "thump".

And slowly, ever so slowly, her head turned from the sky to the floor.

She picked it up, smelled it, and just when he thought she was going to put it back, he heard her inhale a deep breath. She then looked upon the window seal and saw the twenty-six white roses there. She picked one up, then another, until she had her hands filled with each flower, the red rose centered in all of the white.

Suddenly, her body was shaking, and the roses were falling out of her hands. Her face was covered by her hair, but Byakuya saw her tears fall, the moon making them appear like pearls, falling to the ground with the softest noise he had ever heard audible.

He stepped into the room. What caused him to do this was pure insanity. It seemed as if he had no control of his body, and as he knelt down across from Rukia, lifting her chin to have her meet his eyes, he could see the sorrow in them.

Ichigo could not have been a friend to cause this much pain. He had to have much more. So much more that it left Rukia with a scar across her heart, one he had to fix.

"Rukia." Byakuya said, slowly, softly, and meaningfully.

Her eyes drilled into his, looking as if her despair had made it's mark on her face. Her hair, her eyes, her only once-in-a-while smile. It all had to be because of Ichigo.

At first, Byakuya was angry with Ichigo. How could he leave to cause her this much anguish? He then felt envy, but he pushed that thought out of his head as soon as it appeared. Jealous? Of what? Of making her cry? Of making her so full of grief that she couldn't even sleep through a night without waiting for him? Or the fact that he had such an impact on her life, that she would actually wait for him every night?

"Rukia." He repeated, seeing her eyes soften, as she pulled away from his hand and turned her head to the floor.

Byakuya was about to stand, to leave, but something told him he couldn't and shouldn't.

But mostly that he _wouldn't_.

He did what he had never imagined to do. He grabbed her hand, then her other. And slowly he stood up, making her come along with him, standing her up as if she were a marionette, and he was the one pulling the strings.

Then, slowly, he embraced her, carefully holding her as if she would break. Which in knowing what state she was in, she easily could.

Suddenly, he heard her sob, and she embraced him tightly, clutching him in her grasp, as Byakuya still held her as if she where a most precious piece of china, and to him, she was.

"Byakuya...Byakuya...I hate him...I hate him!" She sobbed, each sentence making her entire frame shake.

"No you don't." He said carefully, "You do not hate him. You hate that you lost him."

He paused.

"Rukia. He's not coming back."

Scared that she would cry harder, he was ready to hold her tighter, but instead, she pulled away from him, looking up into those steely black eyes.

"I...I know." She replied, her eyes downcast, her bottom lip trembling. "I just...I can't let go. I just can't forget him!" She said, slightly stronger in her shaky voice.

"I felt the same about Hisana." He said to her, bending down to her level to put a hand on her cheek, rubbing his thumb there.

"And how did you get over it?" She questioned him, her eyes widening, waiting for an answer.

"I found you." He said affectionately, putting his lips to her forehead, kissing her cool skin against his warm lips.

He pulled away after a few moments, taking his hand off her face, and turning to leave.

"Byakuya." She said, her voice still shaky, but firm in the word she said.

He turned towards her, as she walked over to him, looking at her bare feet as she made her journey to him.

"I just feel so hurt, I'm hurting so bad! Please! Take it all away!" She was begging, pleading for him to take away some of her pain.

He nodded his head, the shyest of movements, as he slowly leaned down and kissed the small woman before him.

What made him do it? He'd never know, but when she responded, he knew the healing had begun.

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Review, flame, favorite, whatever! Let me know what you think! Thanks for reading, and I hope you liked it! Ta-ta, dukies!


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